Mr. Brightside

Hi, it’s Nisha from mbaMission. You have an eclectic blend of work experience, with stints at both a F500 healthcare company and a major nonprofit. Love the initiative you took in pitching and managing the conference, which sounds like it’ll have a very positive outcome. Be sure to capture this impact, as well as other professional achievements, on your resume, making clear your key actions.

If I understand, post-MBA you’d like to go beyond a research/analysis role into one that would give you more opportunity for strategic planning and execution. Beyond that, I’m a bit unclear on what type of position/company you hope to enter – there are many ways in which one can exercise creativity and provide impactful insights to organizations. You might consider management consulting as your immediate short-term goal – in this role, you’d get to use your analytical skills to generate strategic recommendations for companies across industries. Then, after a few years, you could transition to an industry that interests you and work in internal strategy for a company in that space. In any case, you’ll want to be able to explain in the MBA application process your career goals, what motivates them based on your experiences and observations to date, and the skills you need from an MBA to make them a reality.

To maximize your chances of getting into a top bschool, you’ll also want to make sure the admissions committee understands you as a multifaceted person. I see you’re interested in writing – what do you write? Have you been published? If so, be sure to highlight that in your application, and what you have enjoyed sharing with the world. While your academics are outstanding and will make the admissions committee take notice, they’ll want to understand you beyond the academic and professional. Finally, I’d consider expanding your list of schools, given how competitive (and somewhat unpredictable) Wharton and HBS have been this past year and are expected to be in the coming year.

Hope that helps a bit – if you would like to discuss further, I encourage you to sign up for a free consultation. Best of luck!

Hi, it’s Jennifer Jackson from Stratus Admissions. There’s a lot to be impressed by in your profile! Your very strong GMAT and GPA will serve you well, and it sounds like you have gotten some good leadership experience in your career so far. Your career goal now is very vague, so I suggest being much more explicit about what it is that you want to do, ST and LT, with the MBA. You want to be able to clearly show Why MBA/Why Now/Why HBS, Why Wharton, etc. To do that you need to be clear about the gaps you have in your skillset that only an MBA can fill. So find a function and type of organization/industry you’re interested in that is ideally tied to something you’ve done or been exposed to so far so you can show some context to that interest. Then name a company or two specifically. For your LT goal, you can be a bit more vague but be clear how the ST role will help prepare you for that LT role. I wish you lots of luck with your applications!